Matt Barlow's Vocal Performance

[darkguardian50]

It doesn't have anything to do really with the Ripper material unless the effect is cumulative. I have a bootleg DVD from the Horror Show tour and I've seen some vids from earlier on this tour and he was damn near flawless at the start.

Sadly I gotta say I saw him the day after ProgPower in Orlando and it was a horrible show. I mean it was really bad. Matt completely lost his voice multiple times, always during that top of his chest voice. His head voice (or that screaming falsetto we all love) sounded great and his growling and low notes were terrific but anytime he tried to go up towards the top of his normal range his voice didn't just crack it disappeared and he would turn his head to the side and cough. He left the stage quite alot too. Jon and the rest of the band got really pissed at the drummer cause he completely lost the beat in Hold at All Costs and I think Matt might have forgotten the chorus as well. Probably one of the worst metal shows I've been to. That said I still had a great time and Stormrider and Dracula killed. I was most disappointed because I really wanted to hear Matt do Hold at All Costs but it was clear something is wrong with his voice right now, it could be a combination of the sinus infection and the strain of a tour with no days off especially coming off playing a festival show. All I can do is hope that next time they come around Matt is in better voice cause this while a fun time really left me wanting. I like Matt alot better than Ripper but when I saw them live with Ripper they were incredible.

 

[Stevie WOnder]

It doesn't have anything to do really with the Ripper material unless the effect is cumulative. I have a bootleg DVD from the Horror Show tour and I've seen some vids from earlier on this tour and he was damn near flawless at the start.

Sadly I gotta say I saw him the day after ProgPower in Orlando and it was a horrible show. I mean it was really bad. Matt completely lost his voice multiple times, always during that top of his chest voice. His head voice (or that screaming falsetto we all love) sounded great and his growling and low notes were terrific but anytime he tried to go up towards the top of his normal range his voice didn't just crack it disappeared and he would turn his head to the side and cough. He left the stage quite alot too. Jon and the rest of the band got really pissed at the drummer cause he completely lost the beat in Hold at All Costs and I think Matt might have forgotten the chorus as well. Probably one of the worst metal shows I've been to. That said I still had a great time and Stormrider and Dracula killed. I was most disappointed because I really wanted to hear Matt do Hold at All Costs but it was clear something is wrong with his voice right now, it could be a combination of the sinus infection and the strain of a tour with no days off especially coming off playing a festival show. All I can do is hope that next time they come around Matt is in better voice cause this while a fun time really left me wanting. I like Matt alot better than Ripper but when I saw them live with Ripper they were incredible.

This is exactly what I heard in Atlanta. I'm not crazy then...

 

[General Zod]

I thought Barlow sounded off and I was less then impressed with the Iced Earth set as a whole. Barlow's rendition of "Declaration Day" was no where near as good as Tim's. But hey, it was closer to the original than Tim's "Dracula". Two great, great singers, each with different strengths. I'm glad I got to see Tim perform three times with IE. Looking forward to the IE NYC show.

Zod

 

[TBJ]

The only songs he "struggles" on are most likely the normal tenor range that Owens would be comfortable singing in. For example, the verses of Declaration day, ten thousand strong, etc. Barlow is a Bass Baritone with a tremendous falsetto range. That's why he can belt out those high notes and in my opinion bring more depth into the screams than did Owens. However, singing for extended periods of time in the tenor range when you're a baritone isn't the easiest thing to do. I'd say the same thing for Owens when he would sing the lower grunt stuff that Barlow was also well known for. His voice sounded thinner in that range because he backed off of it as to not blow out his chords. That being said, I thought Barlow did a fantastic job and any doubts that I could have had in the past about him not being able to pull off the "ripper" Iced Earth songs died a deserved death at this show, sinus infection or not. Now if you want to talk about REALLY STRONG voices, what about Shaffer during the last song when his rig went out? I heard him dropping F bombs over band and everything As was said earlier, anybody complaining about Barlow's performance is most likely not a fan to begin with. And also I couldn't help but giggle when I thought of being pulled over in Vermont by a burly looking bald headed cop who, upon pulling me over would demand ... "LET ME SEE YOUR LICENSE-AH! AND YOUR REGISTRATION-AH! I SEE YOUR INSURANCE EXPIRED... LAST DECEMBERRRRRRR-AH!"

I would frame that ticket and hang it on the wall

 

[The Fiddler]

Matt was a bit off on the first couple of songs, but warmed up nicely after that.

Talking to Matt before the show, he said normally, the band will play 4 or 5 gigs at the most and take a day off. This leg of the tour, they played 10 nights straight without a day off going all the way from Canada to Florida. ProgPower was stop #7. The band and crew was visibly exhausted and a bit frazzled. Brent was the most sick, just about fainting going from the bus to the dressing room after they arrived. With the crew wanting to do a complete change-over after the JOP set, all the ingredients for the perfect storm/trainwreck were in place, but I was surprised that things went as smoothly as the did until the very end when Jon's guitar burned up which really had nothing to do with anyone not being prepared.

 

[dtmetalfan69]

In my opinion, he did Ripper better than Ripper, even if he did have a sinus problem. Phenomenal job pulling out all the strings and just letting lose on all of those high notes. Just a shame that he could not finish the last song of their set. *waves fist in the air*

saMetal

 

[spag]

I most definitely would not go THAT far.

I agree. Even Jon in the interview in the booklet talks about how Ripper can put more power into the falsetto than Matt can. It couldn't be more obvious on the Gettysburg tracks. Matt is a god, no doubt, but he couldn't pull those songs off like Ripper. It seemed to us like something was up with his voice though, and I'd like to hear them again if he's in better form.

Still rocked though.

 

[darkguardian50]

I'd disagree with Jon to an extent because I've seen both singers live and Matt's false is every bit as powerful as Ripper, however its a bit..thin? I dunno how to describe it but its very different from Tim's. Tim was flawless everytime I've seen a live performance of his and when I actually saw them in 04. Matt was just way off. I watched the Horror show bootleg I have tonight and he was damn near perfect, I think his voice cracked once on Wolf (which is a crazy hard song to sing) and thats about it. Like I said though when I saw him Orlando his voice wasn't just cracking it was GONE, no sound was coming out. Youtube has some vids up from NC that were recorded on the 29th. He sounds as bad if not worse in those. Luckily they will have some time off till the 14th. I hope they change around some songs to lessen the strain on his voice because I don't know what was going on but it was really bad. Check the review on metalsetlists. Not to mention Brent (who is really sick I realize) completely fucked up on Hold at All Costs.

Unrelated question I don't remember but did they do the intro to Stormrider? I can't seem to recall them doing it in Orlando. From what I can recall Matt sat out the whole song, he never came out on stage at all.

 

[Metal E]

I thought he sounded good. I was pleasantly surprised how well he did with the tracks that were recorded with Tim Owens. Who ever knew Matt could screech like that? I was one of those skeptics that hated the replacement of Matt with Tim--at least at first. I had a hard time accepting The Glorious Burden, but perhaps I was just initially alienated the change of their vocalist. However (and understand this is coming from a Barlow fan-boy) Framing Armageddon was absolutely spot-on. I haven't had enough time alone with Crucible of Man to pass judgment on that one yet.

I'm grateful to have gotten to see Iced Earth with Matt Barlow, but I also regret not seeing them when they had Tim Owens.

 

[DarkOne]

In my opinion, he did Ripper better than Ripper, even if he did have a sinus problem. Phenomenal job pulling out all the strings and just letting lose on all of those high notes.
saMetal

I thought Ripper's Gettysburg was much better than Barlow's Gettysburg. I love the Barlow era more, and think he can do more as a singerl, but Ripper nailed that trilogy. I had a chance to see him do all three songs live, and that was amazing. Barlow definitely sounded weaker on those songs. I thought he was fine on Declaration Day, Ten Thousand, and the other Ripper songs, though.

He did warm up as the night wore on. Melancholy was positively amazing.

Steve in Philly

 

[Bryan316]

I also prefer Ripper's version of Gettysburg.

But NOBODY can do Burning Times like Barlow.

 

[Soulbinderguitars]

If he sounded great in Atlanta with a sinus infection, imagine what he'll sound like when he's fully recovered!!! m/

Saw Iced Earth in Cleveland on tuesday Sept 30th and Matt was fucking awesome! Being a long time Owens fan from before he was in Priest and in Winters Bane and being a Barlow fan for years I will admit that I was skeptical about his return and performing the songs that Tim had performed. That doubt has been put to rest. I was really impressed with Matt's delivery of Tims songs but with this being said and in all fareness, I still feel that Matt does Matt's songs better and Tim does Tim's songs better. (yeah I know they are all Jon's songs but you know what I mean.) Other than some technical difficulty during Meloncholy The only complaint I have is that they didn't play long enough for me!! And along the same lines, they didn't do an encore?? Still alot of songs I would have like to have heard but they would have had to play till 4:00am for that. Got some good front row center pics if anybody is interested in checking them out. www.myspace.com/sweeppicker

 

[DarkNoble]

I thought Matt did an exceptional job on all the songs. A singer can not be perfect every time they sing. They are human after all.